Generally, in a communications system, such as a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) compliant communications system, there is a plurality of communications controllers. The plurality of communications controllers serves communications devices by controlling communications to and from the communications devices. Communications controllers may also be commonly referred to as enhanced NodeBs, NodeBs, base stations, controllers, and so on. Communications devices may also be commonly referred to as User Equipment, mobile stations, users, subscribers, terminals, and so forth.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art communications system 100. As shown in FIG. 1, communications system 100 includes an enhanced NodeB (eNB) 105 and a User Equipment (UE) 110. eNB 105 and UE 110 may communicate over a communications link 115. Communications link 115 may comprise a first uni-directional link 120, referred to as a downlink (DL), from eNB 105 to UE 110 and a second uni-directional link 125, referred to as an uplink (UL), from UE 110 to eNB 105. Transmissions from eNB 105 to UE 110 take place over DL 120, while transmissions from UE 110 to eNB 105 take place over UL 125.
Typically, a resource allocation (for example, time resources, frequency resources, and/or time-frequency resources) for an UL may be Frequency Division Multiplexed (FDM) and/or Time Division Multiplexed (TDM) for different UEs to avoid inter-cell interference. As an example, two UEs may use different resource blocks for UL transmission, wherein a resource block comprises a number of subcarriers in a specific time unit, such as a slot.